Rome Help

[oz11]

Hi Everyone,

 

We are due to go on our first cruise in july on Dream, and i have a few questions about a tour that the family wish to take in rome.

The other half and my son want to go the vatican, and i would like to see the colosseum, would you say to go on the thompson tour, or do it by ourselves?

If we go with the thompson tour do you still have to wait in a line to go in anywere, or do go get to just walk through.

 

Any help would be great

[Cymro1953]

Hi,

We are off to Rome on the Dream next month and like you want to see the Ancient sites and Colliseum. We are doing the Rome and Colliseum excursion so we can go inside it. Not interested in the Vatican in the short time we've got.

So you can split up as they do excursions covering both places

 

The port is quite a way out of Rome and if you've not been before personally we'd recommend playing safe and doing the Thomson's excursions.

Normally on an excursion the guide will get you through, sometimes a separate gate for tours.

 

Berwyn

[vwgolf]

We did a walking tour of Rome when we went in 2005 that was booked through Thomson's. Although we saw a lot of the sites - Colliseum (from the outside), the Forum, Pantheon etc - it was very rushed and we didn't feel we'd made the most of things. We're going again in August on the Dream and will take a trip that concentrates on just one thing, possibly the Vatican.

[Ceabea]

Rome was my most favourite day on our cruise. I cant comment on the Thomson excursions that include the Colosseum or The vatican as we didnt do those - we took the 'Rome on your own' option. I planned the trip before leaving home, and worked out a route from the colosseum across the city to take in the sites we wanted to see - however there were other options once we got there.

 

I have to be honest and say I dont think you will have time to see both the Colosseum and The Vatican all in one day - The Colosseum took us all morning till lunch time, the Vatican you really need a full day especially considering the queues (which were snaked right round St Peters square at 10am when we arrived). You may need to split up if you want to do it all! You can do both from the 'Rome on your Own' Thomsons excursion so you could travel together to Rome then split up if you wished. The guide on the bus gives you lots of info and a map - and drops you off right in St Peters Square. There is then a HOHO bus that goes round most of the main sites in the city - however a city bus costs just 1 Euro per journey so if you only want to get to the Colosseum from St Peters - take a city bus! The 62 goes from near St Peters and stops in Piaza Venezia just along the via de fori imperiali from the Colosseum - its a 5 min walk - there are other buses but this was the one we managed to find so its the one we took!

 

 

If you take one of the guided tours of the Colosseum you dont have to queue - costs a wee bit more but the info you get is excellent and well worth it. In with the cost of the ticket for the Colosseum you also get a ticket for the Roman Forum and the Capitol (if you buy a tour you get tours of both) - both together will take up most of a day with a break for lunch - and you can then head back to St Peters to be collected.

 

We didnt do the forum tour, we walked back across Rome during the afternoon and took in several more sites.

 

 

If you are visiting the vatican - then where the bus leaves/collects you is where you need to be so its extremely simple! the queues are really very long so be prepared for a lot of waiting around. Theres lots to see and they recommend a full day to make sure you get round it all. I have no idea if the people on the Thomson excursion that includes the vatican will have to queue or not, so can't help you there, sorry.

 

We are hoping to go back to Rome on another cruise one day so we can do the Vatican next time :)

 

Hope thats been some help!

[kruzseeka]

Oops! Duplicate post - thought I'd lost the other one!

[kruzseeka]

Hi Everyone,

 

We are due to go on our first cruise in july on Dream, and i have a few questions about a tour that the family wish to take in rome.

The other half and my son want to go the vatican, and i would like to see the colosseum, would you say to go on the thompson tour, or do it by ourselves?

If we go with the thompson tour do you still have to wait in a line to go in anywere, or do go get to just walk through.

 

Any help would be great

 

Hello oz11,

 

As others have said you can get into Rome on your own (train was 9E return when we did it) but we found we had less time in Rome as although there isn't a lot of difference in travel time you will probably feel, like us, that you will have to head off back to the station and catch an earlier train to make sure you get back to the ship in good time. I think we started looking for the station at about 14.30 (and we were going round in circles looking for the one by St Peter's!)

 

I think it's a good idea to go on the 'Rome on your own' Thomson trip. It's more expensive than the train - but you do get longer there and no worries about the ship leaving before you get back. I think it was about 16.-30 - 17.00 when we left Rome on the Thomson's coach and we arrived only a bit later than the train.

 

The last time we went we booked our tickets on-line for the Colosseum so we were able to go straight in by-passing those queuing - there is a separate entry point for ticket holders. (We don't mind walking and walked from the drop-off by the Vatican but as has been suggested, you can use public transport.)

 

There are several ticket firms advertised on-line but we used the one advertised on this link (Option 3);

 

http://the-colosseum.net/around/visit.htm

 

this is the specific site;

 

http://the-colosseum.net/around/visit.htm

 

The ticket prices on this site are quite a bit cheaper than some other sites, it appears to be the link from the official Colloseum site and you print off your ticket at home before you go. The big advantage of this site though - is that you have an 'open' ticket for the day - not a timed entry. A lot of the sites I looked at when I wanted to book you had to choose an entry time - not easy or desirable when you don't know exactly when you'll get there - you don't want to miss your time - or have to hang about waiting to get in (defeats the object a bit!). We bought the radio commentary so were able go go at our own speed and spend more/less time at specific places on the tour.

 

I've not done the Vatican - as others have said to do these sites justice I don't think you'd have time for both but you can split up - your Colosseum ticket also gives you entry to the Forum so you'll have plenty to see whilst the rest of your family could 'do' the Vatican.

 

We found getting into St Peter's wasn't too bad - the queue looked long but moved quite quickly but I'm not sure about entry to the Museum. Perhaps you can pre-book tickets there too to avoid queues. We'd like to do this next time.

 

Anyway, enjoy Rome. :) Like Ceabea we loved it.